Drumroll Please!

Today is a quiet rainy Sunday after three days of windy summer storming. I took a temp shift at Creative Functions lat night to feed the bank account, which is hungrier than ever these days. Creative Functions is a company that does catering for events of all kinds. Last night was a wedding for 180. It was smooth running. The fiery chef rules mostly by intimidation, although he usually leaves me alone in that respect, although I have found myself on the hot seat before. I haven't worked there for nearly a year and the staff has turned over a lot. I worked with another American named Jim who was placid and competent. Another kitchen staff was Sam, who is from China and was emphatic about everything being done precisely the way he learned it. This drove me 'round the bend and it took a lot of restraint to not give him the "I was in the food business when you were born, and then I started a restaurant..... survival... blah blah ... innovation is important... blah blah , more than one way to do things..." instead I decided to let him do the jobs he found me doing "incorrectly". That was a fine solution indeed. He got stuck with the tail end of things and I got to blaze on and start something new (although, sometimes he was right on my tail, in no time). My garnishes perplexed him, reaching a little farther than he's used to, I guess. My old funky looking knife (a svelte heirloom French Sabatier) got a puzzled stare, Oh Sam, perfection comes in many seemingly imperfect forms. I need to remember that, myself Note to self: Perfection comes in many seemingly imperfect forms.

Desmond and Lillian got a real drum kit this week. Desmond has always shown fascination for drums and drummers. I figured it would be good for him to have a real drum set since the crappy toy one we got him for Christmas didn't last even Christmas day without coming apart and now it is just debris in the toy box. The drum set is RED. When Desmond is frustrated we send him to the drums and he pounds it out and then we cheer. I hope that is healthy and not reinforcing his uncomfortable feelings of frustration. We do cheer for other times, too. We also cheer for Lillian when she gets her little rock and roll booty in there and tears it up (it's hilarious). We have some family sessions where we make up simple rhyming lyrics and turn up the karaoke microphone on our t v, get out the ukulele and get down to some jamming. The kids always seem to love something more if the grown ups are actually willing to invest their time in it. This sometimes creates a tension for the grown up who is trying to launch the child/children into something so they can get a "darn thing done" and slip out from the equation eventually. By the way, a ukulele is no match for a drum set. I fear we need an electric ukulele, now. Here is a little video I took of Dessie this morning.